Mass breakout in Brazil prison as inmates blow up wall

Inmates in one of Brazil's roughest prisons used explosives to destroy a wall and escape en masse into surrounding streets, prompting a frantic manhunt. Media footage of the brazen breakout on Saturday in the northeastern city of Recife showed the blast ripping a hole in the main wall around the Frei Damiao de Bozanno facility. After a cloud of dust and debris clears, a stream of men dressed in ordinary clothing can be seen dashing into the narrow streets before police arrive on the scene.
Forty inmates reportedly escaped from the jail. However, most of the prisoners were captured after a manhunt through local streets lasting several hours, but two were killed and one remains at large. It is the second mass breakout in the area in a week. On Wednesday, 53 men escaped from another jail on the city outskirts and only 13 of them have since been found.
One of those killed was shot after breaking into a local home, police said on Globo television. Footage showed the man lying in a pool of blood on the floor.
Escape attempts are frequent at Pernambuco prisons, the most overcrowded in Brazil. Facilities designed for 10 500 inmates maximum hold around 32 000 people, according to a 2015 study by Human Rights Watch. Many prisoners have to sleep on the floor and there are so few guards that officials turn day-to-day control over to selected inmates who are given keys to the prison's interior, the report said.